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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://theintercept.com/2023/07/01/israel-drone-morocco/">theintercept.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel Ramps Up Drone Sales to Morocco for Its Colonial War in Western Sahara</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Pesha Magid, Andrea Prada Bianchi - July 1, 2023<br></div>
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<p><u>When Abdelahi Emhamed</u> first caught sight of the two drones
overhead, he thought it was normal. A 24-year-old fighter in the
Polisario Front, he had become accustomed to Moroccan surveillance
drones and had learned to shrug off the occasional sighting as a matter
of course.</p>
<p>A young man with a tired smile, Emhamed joined the army in 2020 when a
29-year ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco came to an
abrupt end. The Front has fought for nationhood for Western Sahara’s
indigenous Sahrawi population for 50 years; Morocco occupied Western
Sahara in 1975, and Emhamed grew up on stories of a lost land while
living in refugee camps near Tindouf, a town in an inhospitable desert
corner of southwestern Algeria. When the ceasefire ended, Emhamed jumped
at the opportunity to join the armed forces</p>
<p>He became part of a small unit of mobile fighters sleeping in the
open between a smattering of thorny acacia trees amidst a ceaseless
repetition of flat, brown, and black-pebbled plains. On a November
morning in 2022, he saw the drones far in the sky. It was a beautiful
and quiet time of day, and his team sat down to make tea while they
waited for orders. Sahrawis prepare tea by pouring it boiling hot in and
out of cups in a practiced waterfall until each small glass is filled
with a thick topping of foam. By the time the chink of the glasses was
interrupted by the buzz of the returning drone, it was already over.
Emhamed started to run as the rocket reached ear-piercing levels. He was
just feet away when the blast bowled him over. When he got up, the
little metal tea kettle and the glasses were gone; only a smoking hole
remained. Around him, bodies were scattered. Four men from his unit of
10 were dead.</p>
<p>In December 2020, a month after the end of the ceasefire between
Morocco and the Polisario, then-President Donald Trump declared U.S.
support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. The recognition
contravened the United Nations’ position, which considers Western Sahara
a “non-self governing territory,” a euphemism for a colony. In return
for U.S. support on Western Sahara, Morocco joined the Abraham Accords, a
series of diplomatic deals brokered by Trump and his son-in-law, Jared
Kushner, that resulted in the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Bahrain, and
Morocco normalizing relations with Israel. Since then, Rabat has gone
from having covert ties with Tel Aviv to becoming its open ally, and
Israel has <a href="https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/09/29/morocco-drones-from-israel/#:~:text=Morocco%20has%20procured%20at%20least,2021%20upon%20reestablishing%20diplomatic%20relations.">sold</a> at least 150 drones to Morocco.</p>
<div> <img src="cid:ii_ljlp7eh63" alt="image.png" width="416" height="277"><br><p></p><p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Children
chant independence slogans at a military parade for the 50th
anniversary of the Polisario Front in Awserd refugee camp, Algeria, on
May 20, 2023.</font></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Pesha Magid, Andrea Prada Bianchi</font></p></div>
<p>The proliferation of drones in Morocco makes an already unequal war
between Morocco and the Polisario completely asymmetrical. The Polisario
fight with mortars, drive in repurposed sand-brown Toyotas and old Land
Rovers, and rely on traditional guerrilla tactics to try and melt back
into the desert. Meanwhile, Morocco has purchased drones from Israel,
Turkey, and China, enabling them to carry out attacks deep in Sahrawi
territory. Chinese and, especially, Turkish drones appear to be carrying
out the majority of strikes, but the Israeli ones are more
sophisticated when it comes to surveillance technology.</p>
<p>“Sahrawi people feel that every day, we become similar to
Palestinians,” said Mohamed Sidati, the foreign affairs minister of the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the name Sahrawis have given their
state. Morocco controls an estimated 80 percent of Western Sahara,
including the areas rich in phosphate and other valuable resources. To
control that territory, Morocco built a 2,700 km sand wall, known as a
berm, that snakes through Western Sahara and divides the land in two. On
the Moroccan-controlled side of the berm, in what Sahrawis call the
“occupied territories,” Sahrawis live under surveillance and face <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/morocco-and-western-sahara">harassment, detention</a>, and torture if they lobby for independence, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/morocco-and-western-sahara/report-morocco-and-western-sahara/">according to human rights organizations</a>.
On the Polisario-controlled side of the wall, Sahrawis have been
largely ignored by the international community, while the Abraham
Accords have enabled Morocco to heighten its attacks with the help of
the latest in drone technology, fresh from Israel.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-h-heron-drones">Heron Drones</h2>
<p>While Morocco’s purchase of Israeli drones has been <a href="https://defense-update.com/20140121_israeli-herons-supplied-france-end-morocco.html">reported</a>
since 2014, their use in Western Sahara is less well documented. A
local journalist shared photos with The Intercept that had circulated on
social media and show an Israeli Heron drone at Dakhla airport, a city
on the Moroccan-controlled side of Western Sahara; the photos were dated
from late 2020 and early 2021. Details from the hangar in the photos
match images of Dakhla airport. Additionally, commercial satellite
images show what strongly resembles a Heron drone outside the hangar in
October 2021.</p>
<p>Israel first <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/moroccos-military-said-to-receive-3-israeli-reconnaissance-drones/">sold</a>
three Heron drones to Morocco in a one-time French-brokered deal six
years before the official rapprochement between the two states. But
after the Abraham Accords, the military deals were ramped up. In
November 2021, then-Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-israel-morocco-rabat-d8d0b925991fe9f544773a7be555ab3a">visited Rabat</a>
to sign the first defense memorandum of understanding between the two
countries. Days later, Haaretz reported a $22 million sale of exploding
Harop drones to Morocco. In September 2022, Morocco <a href="https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/09/29/morocco-drones-from-israel/">purchased</a> 150 more Israeli drones.</p>
<p>Federico Borsari, a researcher specializing in unmanned technologies
at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that Morocco owns or
has bought 150 WanderB and ThunderB vertical takeoff and landing drones
produced by BlueBird Aero Systems, three Heron TPs and Harop loitering
munitions produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (decommissioned by
France and transferred to Morocco), and four Hermes 900s produced by
Elbit Systems. Borsari used publicly available information to make this
assessment. Morocco also owns Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones and Chinese
Wing Loong drones, both of which are used for combat.</p>
<div> <img src="cid:ii_ljlp6jn32" alt="image.png" width="416" height="285"><br><p></p><p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">A
satellite image from October 20th, 2021 shows what appears to be a
Heron drone in Dakhla airport in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.</font></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Maxar Technologies via Google Earth</font></p></div>
<p>It is unclear whether Israeli drones that are apparently being used
in Western Sahara solely provide surveillance and target recognition, or
if they also directly attack targets. Sidi Owgal, a senior military
official within the Polisario who currently serves as the head of
presidential security, told The Intercept that Israeli drones do both.
Abwa Ali, a commander within the Polisario who regularly leads attacks
against Moroccan bases along the berm, said that he had personally seen
missile fragments with Hebrew lettering on them. Some of Morocco’s
Israeli drone arsenal could indeed be used as attack drones: The Heron
TP and the Hermes 900 can be used for both surveillance and attacks,
while the Harop is only for strikes. “The Harop are what we call
‘loitering munitions’; they are expensive and they can hit only once
because they destroy at the impact,” said Borsari. “They would most
likely be used against high-value targets.”</p>
<p>While it’s unclear whether Israeli drones are being used to launch
missiles, Morocco has acquired drones from other countries that appear
to be used for that purpose. For instance, Turkey <a href="https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/04/20/morocco-buys-turkish-bayraktar-drones/">sold</a>
13 Bayraktar TB2 attack drones to Morocco in 2021. In the Sahrawi
refugee camps in Algeria, The Intercept examined missile scraps that
indicate the TB2s are being used to attack targets in Western Sahara.
Some fragments bear the label “MAM-L,” while one piece had the word
“Roketsan” written on it. “MAM-L” is the name of a laser-guided bomb
manufactured by the Turkish defense ministry contractor Roketsan, and
the bomb is typically launched from the Bayraktar TB2. “The sensors on
Israeli drones are very sophisticated,” said Borsari. “It is possible
that Morocco uses Israeli drones for target recognition followed by an
attack with other drones, like the Turkish ones.” He added that “in
general, the performances of the Turkish and Chinese sensors are
currently absent or lower.”</p>
<p>Owgal and Sidati, the foreign affairs minister, claim that Israeli
advisers are on the ground on the Moroccan side of the berm counseling
the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on their use of drone technology. “They
are there … not far from the berm,” said Sidati, though he declined to
share any evidence, saying it was secret. Borsari believes “it is not
only possible but very likely that Israel sent advisers on the ground in
Morocco to train the Royal Armed Forces in the use of drones.” Moroccan
media has also <a href="https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2021/09/344481/morocco-partners-with-israel-to-develop-local-loitering-munitions-industry">stated</a> that Rabat plans to manufacture “kamikaze” drones in partnership with Tel Aviv, and Israeli company Elbit Systems <a href="http://eldebate.com/internacional/20230625/israel-abrira-dos-fabricas-material-militar-marruecos-afianza-asi-cooperacion-armanetistica_122486.html">recently announced</a> the opening of the two factories in Morocco to produce “defense systems.”</p>
<p>Officials from Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Israel Defense Forces refused to comment on any of these allegations.</p>
<p>Gaici Nah, the operations manager of Polisario-linked Sahrawi Mine
Action Coordination, claims that between 80 and 100 civilians have been
killed and injured since the end of the ceasefire in 2020, but did not
say how many of each. Nah claims to have documented over 60 drone
strikes using a combination of witness statements, news reports, and
Polisario military statements. (No Polisario official would comment to
The Intercept on the number of military casualties.) Not only Sahrawi
citizens have been targeted. </p>
<p>In November 2021, Algeria <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/3/three-algerians-killed-in-attack-presidency-blames-on-morocco">claimed</a>
Morocco used “sophisticated weaponry” to strike three Algerian truckers
as they were reportedly passing through Polisario-controlled Western
Sahara. In 2022, two Mauritanian citizens were <a href="https://www-rfi-fr.translate.goog/fr/afrique/20220413-l-alg%C3%A9rie-accuse-le-maroc-d-assassinats-cibl%C3%A9s-apr%C3%A8s-une-attaque-de-drones-au-sahara-occidental?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp">reportedly</a>
killed by Moroccan drone strikes. Sidati also alleged that there were
many civilian casualties. “The Moroccans have a scorched-earth policy,”
he said.</p>
<p>The U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara — or MINURSO, a
peacekeeping mission established at the start of the ceasefire to
monitor the conflict and carry out an independence referendum (that
never happened) — stated in their most recent report, in October 2022,
that they were only able to independently confirm casualties in one
drone strike and observed traces of human remains at four other sites.
They additionally documented 18 drone strikes and confirmed aerial
strikes in eight instances. However, U.N. officials said they have
limited access to the ground. “Because of the military operations and
restrictions on the east side of the berm, patrolling does not account
for all of the incidents,” said Yusef Jedian, the head of MINURSO’s
Liaison Office in Tindouf.</p>
<div> <img src="cid:ii_ljlp5n5v1" alt="image.png" width="416" height="297"><br><p></p><p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">Two kids fencing between goat pens in Awserd refugee camp, Algeria, on May 20, 2023.</font></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Pesha Magid, Andrea Prada Bianchi</font></p></div>
<p>While reporting in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, The
Intercept spoke to a witness of a strike against civilians. Abd Jaleel, a
goat and camel farmer, fled his home in November 2021 as the war with
Morocco made living in Polisario-controlled Western Sahara too
dangerous. Near the Mauritanian border, he saw his neighbor, 29-year-old
Salih Mohamed Lamis, another goat trader who had also fled their town
as the war heated up. Lamis was about 6 km ahead of him, driving a Land
Rover carrying water supplies. As they approached the border, around 11
in the morning, he heard a muffled explosion. At first, he did not
realize it was a drone strike, but in the evening, others retrieved
Lamis’s body and brought it to Jaleel. Lamis’s face was mangled so badly
that it resembled ground meat; his body was completely burned; and when
Jaleel attempted to move him, his skin stuck to his own hand. Since the
strike, Jaleel has lived in fear of hearing the sound of a drone again.
He grows anxious when he is outside in the open, thinking he could be
hit at any time. “You can’t hide from the sky,” he said.</p>
<p>In a comment to MINURSO, Morocco had denied targeting civilians in
Western Sahara, while also stating that no civilians should live there.
“There is no reason to justify the presence of civilians or Algerian
nationals, or of other nationalities, in this area,” wrote the permanent
representative of Morocco to the United Nations<a href="https://minurso.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/sg_report_october_2022_0.pdf"> to MINURSO</a>
in November 2021. This type of statement is rare, as Morocco generally
does not publicly acknowledge the war. During The Intercept’s visit to
the Sahrawi camps at the end of May, news spread of a new drone strike
against Polisario soldiers; six reportedly died.</p>
<blockquote>“Morocco says they don’t have a war. But why do they have drones attacking on the other side of the berm then?”</blockquote>
<p>“Morocco says they don’t have a war,” a U.N. official told The
Intercept, asking that their name not be used because of the sensitivity
of the issue. “But why do they have drones attacking on the other side
of the berm then? They say they don’t have a war. So, this is how they
are enjoying peace.”</p>
<div> <p><img src="https://production.public.theintercept.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_2884.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="0" height="0"></p><img src="cid:ii_ljlp4phm0" alt="image.png" width="416" height="277"><br><p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">A series of missile fragments from an alleged Moroccan drone strike collected by SMACO, on May 21, 2023.</font></p>
<p class="gmail-caption"><font size="1">
Photo: Pesha Magid, Andrea Prada Bianchi</font></p></div>
<h2>Camp David Host</h2>
<p>Contacts between Morocco and Israel have always been quite friendly
compared to the average Israel-Arab world relationship. Jewish
communities have historically been present (and well accepted) in
Moroccan cities. Last December, Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote a
letter to King Mohammed VI of Morocco to thank him for the shelter the
kingdom gave to Jews during the Holocaust. After World War II, most
Moroccan Jews immigrated to Israel, but the bonds remained strong. </p>
<p>Morocco hosted some of the Israel-Egypt secret talks that would lead
to the Camp David Accords in 1978, and King Hassan II was a firm
sustainer of the détente between Tel Aviv and Cairo. Israel and Morocco
established low-level diplomatic relations in 1994 when Tel Aviv opened a
liaison office in Rabat. The office closed after the Second Intifada in
2000, but informal relations never stopped. In 2021, the Israeli
representation office in Rabat reopened.</p>
<p>The Abraham Accords opened the way to official relations, and it
seems that Morocco and Israel were just waiting for an opportunity to
start doing business together. Since 2020, the two countries have
implemented a long series of economic and military agreements beyond the
sale of drones. For the first time, Israeli troops from the elite
Golani unit <a href="https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/06/355808/israeli-soldiers-join-african-lion-2023-for-first-time">participated</a>
in Africa Lion, an 18-country joint military drill in Morocco, which
completed on June 18. In 2021 and 2022, respectively, Gantz, Israel’s
then-minister of defense, and then-Head of Israel Defense Forces Aviv
Kochavi visited Morocco and signed several military deals, including a
$500 million contract for the delivery of the Barak MX missile defense
system to Rabat. Early this year, one of the Pentagon Discord leaks
allegedly revealed that the system was scheduled to arrive in Morocco in
mid-2023. Morocco is <a href="https://ledesk.ma/enoff/le-maroc-recevra-des-chars-israeliens-merkava/">reportedly</a>
also in advanced negotiations to receive Israeli Merkava tanks. Rabat
and Tel Aviv are also cooperating at an intelligence level. Morocco has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/03/morocco-western-sahara-activist-nso-pegasus/">widely</a> been <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2023/02/09/morocco-decries-unjust-eu-actions-over-pegasus-spyware/">reported </a>(and accused by other countries) as one of the most eager users of the Pegasus spyware developed by the Israeli NSO Group.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, economic cooperation is booming. According to U.N. data
analyzed by The Intercept, in pre-Abraham 2019, trade between Israel and
Morocco was at $70.7 million. In 2022, the figure reached $178.7
million, and Tel Aviv <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/morocco-israel-sign-trade-deal-2022-02-21/">has declared </a>it
is targeting $500 million. From 2019 to 2022, exports from Israel to
Morocco increased tenfold, from $3.8 million to $38.5 million. Western
Sahara plays an important role in the love story between the two
countries. In 2021 and 2022, two Israeli companies, Ratio Petroleum and
NewMed Energy, obtained from Morocco rights to research and potentially
exploit two separate offshore blocks in the Atlantic Ocean just off
Western Sahara’s coastline. Moroccan local news also <a href="https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/03/354751/israels-selina-group-to-open-new-hotel-in-moroccos-dakhla">announced</a>
Israel’s Selina group would soon open a hotel in Dakhla. For Morocco,
foreign investments in what it considers its “southern province” mean
external recognition of its claims on the territory.</p>
<p>Israeli businesses, like other foreign actors, don’t seem concerned
about international law when investing in Western Sahara. A 2002 U.N.
legal opinion deemed illegal the exploration and exploitation of mineral
resources in a “non-self governing territory” like Western Sahara
without the authorization of the people of that territory. In three
following rulings, the European Union Court of Justice has, in various
forms, condemned trading in Western Sahara without the consent of the
Sahrawi people. At the end of 2022, Western Sahara Resource Watch, a
pressure group that monitors resource exploitation in
Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, asked NewMed Energy about the
legitimacy of the deal. The company replied that “all our actions in the
past and in the present are done in accordance with and subject to
international law and Israeli law and the laws in force.” When WSRW
asked three times “which country’s laws” are applicable to Western
Sahara, NewMed Energy stopped replying.</p>
<p>In March last year, WSRW reported the first shipment of phosphate
rock from Western Sahara to Israel. Erik Hagen, board member of WSRW,
told The Intercept that the cargo was very small, and it is the only one
they observed toward Israel. OCP, the Moroccan company extracting and
exporting phosphate rock in Morocco and Western Sahara, hasn’t replied
to a request for comment about the episode.</p>
<p>Morocco’s drone attacks do not appear to have sapped any energy from
the Polisario’s long war; if anything they are adding fuel to the fire.
Emhamed, the drone strike survivor, had to get treatment for a shrapnel
injury, but he has already returned to the camps to participate in a
military parade for the Polisario’s 50th anniversary. He remains haunted
by the people he lost in the strike. A quiet man who wears his military
fatigues even when at home, Emhamed seems perennially exhausted. He
stays up late at night and chain-smokes L&M reds. A few hours after
drawing lines in the sand outside his home to show The Intercept where
the strike scattered the bodies of his unit, he took a drag off a
cigarette. “No one can understand the front unless they’ve seen it with
their eyes,” he said. Despite the drones, he is planning to go back to
the front line, attacking the Moroccans on the other side of the berm.</p>
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